Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 256

240
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[SEPTEMBER, 1918
The learners and teachers of Vârtlâ or its branches. The application of the principles of Vartta within the state by competent men was the look-out of the sovereign. In view of this exigenoy, the sovereign had to learn vartta with perhaps special attention to its more useful sub-divisions, viz. agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade from teachers having special knowledge thereof. Kautilya includes vârttà in the course of study prescribed for the prince, the subject being taught by superintendents of government-departments (adhyakshah) having not merely a theoretical but also a thorough practical knowledge of the same and who were in charge of various agricultural, industrial and commercial operations of the state. The prince also learnt arthasâstra from competent professors.4.
It seems that the two higher castes, eligible as they were to the study of all the branches of learning, could learn Värttá like the Vaisyas either in order to have & merely general knowledge of the subject or, according to particular needs, to have a special knowledge of some or all of its branches. The Brahmaras learnt the subject sometimes perhaps for the sake of making their education all-round, and sometimes for the purpose of teaching it to their pupils; for the Brahmaras were teachers not merely of theology and philosophy but also of economics, polity including even the art of warfare and use of weapons, as also the practical or fine arts, and accomplisments. Only a few instances will suffice. Rama and his cousin were taught the use of some weapons by Visvamitra, the Pandavas the military art along with the use of weapons by Dronacháryya. The various branches of learning together with the sixty-four kalâs were learnt by Krishna from his preceptor Sâmdipani. Thus the members of the first caste were often masters and teachers of the practical arts, though of course it should be admitted that the knowledge and practice of târtta were the special obligation of the Vaisyas, just as the knowledge and practice of dandaniti (polity) the special charge of the Kshattriyas. The members of the fourth caste were, as it appears from several Sanskrit texts, debarred from literary or scientific culture, but, according to Kautilya, they were eligible to the means of subsistence included in vartid and had therefore at least the practical knowledge required for the purpose and transmitted from one genera tion to another through apprenticeship of some form or other.
Manner of treatment and extant literature.. The manner of treatment of varttâ or its sub-topics in the treatises on the subjects, so far as we can judge it from the evidences at our disposal, was rather concrete, though, of course, general maxims and wise saws, the generalizations that were the results of long experience were not wanting in them. The economic treatises of the ancients whether of Greece or India could not be like their namesakes of the present day. The aim of the works on vartta was more or less practical, their primary object being the guidance of the traders. agriculturists, cattle-rearers, artisans, artists, and directors of industries, and the concrete mode of treatment of the subjects in those books was determined by this practical purpose. I have appended at the end of this discourse names of extant treatises on the various arts
4 Ramayana, Ayodhya kanda, 100, slk. 68; Mahabharata, Sabhd. Parva, ch. 5. élks. 76.79. 12 Manu, VII, 13
Traividyobhasiraylın vidyaddandaniti atha shvatim, Anvikshikim chatmavidyam vartthrambban scha lokatab.
-ef. Yajnuratya. I, 311; Ayni-Purana, ch. 238, lk. 8. Kautiliya, Bk. I, Vriddhasa'yoga), p. 10.
41 Ibid.